


Emily Miller and the Missing Wifi Password

by SoftGrungeFairy



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/F, F/M, Gen, Humor, Next Gen, just changed the last names, this is a blatant self insert
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-19
Updated: 2015-07-20
Packaged: 2018-04-10 01:48:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 9,380
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4372487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SoftGrungeFairy/pseuds/SoftGrungeFairy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Join Emily and her fellow muggle friends as they become exchange students at Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry and there search for the wifi password and a plug for their phones.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. We Get on a Train

 

For people who could move things from five feet away with a stick, they seemed to be weirdly obsessed with Misty's hair. My short, curvaceous friend walked closely next to me, not thrilled by the added attention. Professor Longbottom had told us that there were people called metamorphacus's that could change their hair color, but they weren't common. Her short lavender hair stood out. We were at the front of a herd of about forty muggle students that had been selected for the Hogwarts exchange program. Misty and I were with a few other students to enter into the fourth year at the school instead of going to the specialty schools that we had initially applied for back home in NYC. When it had been announced that this program was opening up for the top public schools, we had applied and gotten in together. Now we were standing in front of a wall at Kings Cross and our chaperone, a short woman named Mrs. Yardly, was telling us to _run straight at it_. At this point the idea that this was all an elaborate prank crossed my mind.

 “You first Emily.” Misty muttered next to me, eyeing the wall warily before glancing up at me, “If I crash I might have to replace my glasses again.”

She nudged me forward with her elbow and Mrs.Yardly once again tried to reassure us, "Really dears, the likelihood of crashing is very low."

 I glanced back down at Misty and then looked back at the other nervous faces of the students. With a sigh, I pushed my cart towards the wall at a run. When I was almost there I closed my eyes and cringed preparing myself to hit-

 I opened my eyes when I only felt a strange feeling, like a bucket of ice water being dumped on me, and nothing else and certainly no brick wall. In front of me was a train platform teeming with movement and a massive red train waiting. I apparently waited a little too long and felt something crash into me, namely, 130 lbs. of cute mess named Misty. With a grunt I heaved her off her cart that she had fallen on top of. Her face was cherry red as she righted herself and squeaked out a  _thanks_. Not wanting a repeated accident I quickly grabbed her and pulled her out of the way. A kind looking old man in a red and black uniform approached us and asked, "Do you ladies need help with your baggage?"

I was about to say no, but then I remembered that Misty had insisted on bringing two extra suitcases for "necessities, I swear" and thought better of it. He took Misty's extra bags and I took mine, Misty trailed behind dragging her over stuffed suitcase. We stuck to ourselves until we were settled in an empty compartment, the others could find their own spots.

"Maybe we could invite some of the others." Misty said softly after we had sat in silence for a few minutes.

I thought back to the other students that had been selected for the exchange program and cringed. Most of them were way too involved with themselves.

"I don't think so."

"They could be nice, you didn't really talk to them earlier."

"I didn't really want to.” That might have been a little harsh, I glanced over at Misty and quickly added, “Besides, why would I try and deal with them when I've got you?"

"Aww Emily! You’re too sweet. But seriously though, try to make some friends besides me! I mean I know I'm awesome, but you need to socialize with other people too."

"I suppose..."

Misty fawned over herself a few more seconds, but then the doors to our compartment opened. I side-eyed the person in the doorway from my position next the window. A small girl with wild red hair and green eyes stood in the door, looking between the Misty and I with a nervous smile. Misty looked a little alarmed by the intrusion and croaked out, "Hey."

To think this was the girl telling me to develop my social skills. I rolled my eyes, but still straightened up and extended my hand, the poor girl was obviously almost as bad as Misty in social situations.

"Hey, I'm Emily and this is Misty."

The girl relaxed a bit and took my hand loosely and mumbled in a thick English accent, "Hello, I'm Lily. I'm sorry to be a bother, but do you have a spare seat? I couldn’t find any others and my brothers were being jerks."

In an instant my heart melted for her. My mama bear instincts kicked in and I quickly patted the spot next to me with a hurried, "Of course hon. Say no more." 

Lily was…small. Just a little shorter than Misty’s 4’ 11’’ and probably a solid foot shorter than me. She didn’t have the curves and her face still had the childhood chub to it with a thick pair of black glasses precariously balanced on a small nose. The glasses lost their battle with gravity and tumbled off her face she collapsed down on to the seat next to me. Her face turned scarlet and she scrambled for the glasses but Misty, having lost the same battle several times herself, saw what had been about to happen and was ready to help the moment it did. She bent down quickly and grabbed the glasses and handed them to Lily. The smaller girl smiled shyly and put the glasses back in their rightful place.

“So Lily, what year are you?” I asked cheerfully and loudly, obviously moving on.

“I’m a first year actually, it’s very exciting! My brothers have been telling me all about it for years and now it’s _finally_ my turn. James and Al always make fun of me for being the baby, but I’ll show them! Aunt Hermione showed me some wand techniques this summer when the boys weren’t there and she’s the best witch EVER!”    

“That sounds cool, I’m sure you’ll be great.” I said sweetly, she was adorable. “I get the brother thing too.  My brother is two and half years older than me and _never_ lets me forget it.”

Misty jumped in at this point and said, “And don’t even get me started on Megan, ugh. Let me tell you, older sisters are way worse than older brothers.”

This once again set Misty and I on the debate about brothers vs. sisters that we had been having pretty much since we met a few years ago in 4th grade. After a while Lily got comfortable enough to join in, having experience with both big brothers and close older female cousins (which according to her were even _worse_ than big sisters). The train began to move and time passed and topics changed as we got farther along. Lily was a sweet girl and got along great with Misty. This didn’t surprise me, she seemed like a carbon copy of what Misty was like four years ago. After we were a couple hours into the ride the topic of houses came up.

 “I don’t know which I want to get into. Both my parents and oldest brother were put in Gryffindor, but my younger brother is a Ravenclaw.”

 “Wait, so if I understand this right you put on a magic hat, it reads your mind, evaluates your traits when you’re _eleven_ , and decides what group of people you’ll be around constantly for the next _seven_ years and the reputation you have for the rest of your life?” I asked incredulously.

  “Um, yes”

 “I can tell you right now I am a way different person than I was when I was eleven. It also takes a few stereotyped traits in a child and sticks it with them permanently. What if you change? Actually, no “what if”, you change as you grow, everybody does. That doesn’t make sense and doesn’t seem like a stable way to encourage growth in children.”

This entire concept seemed incredibly flawed to me, but Misty interrupted me before I could continue, “Emily, it’s their tradition and we need to respect it. Remember we should accept their society without judgment if it works for them.”

“Why should I accept a flawed system when people could make it better?”

“It’s really not that bad.”, Lily added somewhat defensively, “You can still hang out with other people, and it really doesn’t decide you’re fate forever or anything. Yes the reputation sticks with you, but that’s not all people see.”

“I guess…”

“Anyway, based on this I’d guess Gryffindor. Home of the brave and loyal.”

“I feel like that’s a compliment so thanks.”

“What about me?” Misty asked, not wanting to get left out.

Lily looked at her for a few minutes, scanning her with her eyes until nodding solemnly and mock seriously said, “Definitely a Slytherin, I can tell from your cunning and selfishness.”

Misty looked at her in horror. She didn’t get the Lily was joking.

I commented before she started crying, “She’s joking.”

Lily realized her mistake and jumped to help me cheer up Misty, “I was! I’m sorry I’m not good at joking. I’m not very funny either. Actually I think you’d probably be in Hufflepuff since you’re such a sweet person.”

“Really?” Misty asked, sniffling a little and blinking to try and get rid of the tears.

“Yeah, you’re like one of the nicest people I’ve met and I’ve only known you a few hours.”

“Aww thanks! You’re really sweet too. Hey! Maybe we’ll both get in to Hufflepuff and we can hang out all of the time!”

The two of them huddled closer and started enthusing about their potential future in Hufflepuff. With any luck we would all get in and I wouldn’t have to worry about talking to other people and trying to make new friends like Misty had suggested earlier. Though I felt that didn’t really fit with the Hufflepuff model. I left them too their conversation to find a bathroom. Lily had said we were probably getting closer earlier and I wanted to get cleaned up a little bit. If there was one thing my family had taught me, presentation was everything. If you acted like you knew what you were doing and were confident, then other people would believe it. This was a new place and a very different environment than what I was used to, I needed to go into this prepared.

The bathroom was at the end of the corridor and I slid in quickly before anyone else had the same idea as me. I looked at my reflection and began to evaluate. My reddish brown and blonde ombre hair was tangled, my dark red lipstick on my small bowed lips was mostly gone, and the eyeliner around my small green eyes was hopelessly smudged. I would have to re-do all of it. I took my make up bag out of my messenger bag and got to work. I was finishing up my eyeliner when there was a banging on the door. I’d probably been in there for twenty minutes. I felt my face heat up and saw my cheeks tinge pink but all the same straightened up and put on my best bored expression. I opened the door and stepped out of the bathroom with as much grace and poise I could muster. I looked at the angry person waiting on me up and down. He was tall and lean with dark hair, brown eyes, and covered in freckles. He looked to be about my age and very annoyed.

I heaved a sigh to further project my boredom with his antics and asked, “Can I help you?”

“Yeah, you can move so I can use the toilet!” He said, almost yelling.

“Whatever” I said, brushing past him to go back to my compartment. Misty was used to me taking a while to do makeup but Lily might wonder where I was.

However, the boy’s next comment stopped me dead in my tracks, “Girls, always need to make sure they’re so pretty and taking so long. Bunch of false advertising that is.”

I froze, and turned on the spot with a low and dangerous, “Excuse me?”

“Come on it’s true right? You girls always load up on make up and give guys the wrong idea about what you look like. It’s false advertising.” He responded, smiling to himself at his “cleverness”.

“Except it’s not because we’re not for sale. I wear make up for myself, not for dumb boys like you. It’s an art and just because you can't do it doesn’t mean you should trash talk us for it.”

I could practically feel the steam coming from my ears at this point, and I think the boy could tell. He began to look a little worried and began to back away with his hands up, “Look, I didn’t mean anything by it okay? I’m sorry.”

“James! Are you bothering Emily?”

I spun around for the source of the yelling and saw Lily. She was making good time up the hallway with a glare directed at the boy. I glanced back at him and then back to Lily, “You know this guy?”

She sighed, “Unfortunately, this is my oldest brother, James.”

“Unfortunately?” He squawked, directing his attention to Lily, “I’ll have you know I am a great older brother.”

Lily looked at him like she was looking at grass growing. She looked back at me and asked, “You coming back to the compartment?”

I looked back at James before saying, “I was thinking I’d educate your brother on feminism and the patriarchy, but I don’t know how much he would understand. They are big words after all.”

“James, were you making girl jokes again? I’ll tell mom and dad!” Lily fussed, obviously having dealt with this before.

“I’m sorry okay, I am very sorry and am a dumb sexist boy! Don’t tell mom and dad!” James pleaded, looking even more worried.

Lily contemplated for a minute before answering, “I’ll think about it. Come on Emily.”

We left him to the bathroom after that, a smug smile on our faces. He deserved to sweat a bit after that comment. We got back and Misty looked at our faces, concern crossing her features.

“Everything okay?”

“It’s fine.” I said, returning to my spot near the window.

Lily sat next to Misty and excitedly filled in her new teen friend, adding in some extra details to add to the drama and excitement. I just relaxed near the window for the last half hour of the trip.  The three of us changed into our new uniforms when we started to see buildings in the distance. They were grey and boring had knee length skirts that were a little short on me and a little long on Misty to both our chagrin. The rolling hills began to flatten and we pulled up and finally stopped in a small town Lily told us was called Hogsmede. We shuffled off the train and more men and women in red and gold uniforms came and got our trunks, assuring us they would be waiting in our rooms when we arrived. It all seemed a little too convenient to me but then again I was dealing with people who could turn birds into cups. The three of us huddled together on the new platform and I looked around, trying to figure out where to go. I looked to the left and saw the single largest person I have ever laid eyes on.

“Holy shit.” I muttered under my breath.

This guy had a huge black beard with long black hair and a brown, ratty duster covered in pockets of assorted size and colors. He carried a lantern in one hand and waved with the other. It took me a moment to comprehend that he was yelling for first years and exchange students.

Wait that’s me.

I shook my head and jabbed the others to indicate we were moving. Lily and Misty turned towards the huge man, and while Misty’s jaw dropped like mine had, Lily just beamed and ran towards him.

“Hagrid!”

The little girl took a running leap and hugged the man. He responded quickly and hugged her back just as fiercely, so much so that her feet were not touching the ground. He put her down after a moment with a large lopsided smile.

“I’m so happy you’re here Lily. Maybe you can calm down your brothers antics a bit for me? I don't mind so much, but the poor headmistress is going grey even faster if that’s possible.”

Lily just giggled and said, “I’ll try, but no promises.” 

She turned then, remembering us and ushered us over, “Hagrid, these are my new friends Misty and Emily. Their transfer students and will be fourth years with Al.”

The large man, Hagrid, pulled us both under one large arm in a strange hug and said enthusiastically, “Any friend of Lily here’s is a friend of mine. Welcome to Hogwarts!”

“Is it in Hogsmede?” Misty asked, looking around a little disappointedly. We had heard it was huge.

Hagrid and Lily just laughed before Hagrid said, “No dear, you’re about to get on the boats and then you’ll see it. Make your way over so you can all get a boat together. I’ll see you all again later. Have fun tonight!”

Hagrid said goodbye to Lily and continued on down the platform, then Lily pulled our sleeves over towards the forested shoreline. Small boats waited at docks and we all piled into one with a three other girls. Two were other transfer students named Briar and Waseem. Briar was tall and willowy girl with long thin brown hair and a pointed nose, and Waseem was a tall boy with dark tanned skin, curly dark hair, and square glasses. The last girl was a witch named Martha who had dark skin and amber eyes and gorgeous curly hair.  We didn’t have much time to do anything other than introduce ourselves before the boat started moving.

I won’t lie, I freaked out a little bit.

“How? Where’s the motor? Is there a rope?” I said a little too loud and franticly, loosing my carefully crafted calm. I wasn’t scared of a lot of things, but water was definitely one of them.

Misty just leaned over and murmured, “Um Emily, magic remember?”

I blushed and settled back in my seat and sat straight, trying to keep an air of dignity. That was fine until Misty nudged me and I looked up. In front of me was the most beautiful building I’d ever seen. In fact, calling it a building seemed insulting.

I whispered to Misty, “They weren’t exaggerating the castle thing, were they?”

She just shook her head and we stared together. The massive castle on top of the hill and was lit up by fires in the windows and torches on the lower wall. I don’t know how much time passed but we eventually landed at the shore near the castle. It was a short walk up the hill and we were ushered into a small room with a large set of intricately carved doors. Misty leaned over to me about to say something, but a throat cleared to our right and we all looked back over to the doors. Professor Longbottom, the man we had met for orientation back home, was standing in front of the large doors and had a huge smile on his face while he waited for everyone to quiet down and look at him. He cleared his throat again and started to speak.

“Welcome everyone to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. This is an old and proud institution of learning, and I hope you will also come to see it as a home. As you all know this year is very special. When wizards and witches came out to the world two years ago an idea was put in the works that some muggle students would come to magical school so that they could learn more about our culture and who we are. You will be sorted into houses like the other students and will take classes that learn more about magical theory and the less magic heavy subjects. There are also a few muggle teachers with us now that will be covering other subjects for you so you don’t have to worry about falling behind. All of you, whether or not you realize it, are very brave. If you ever feel discouraged or scared, remember that every single one of you was handpicked for this and the decision wasn’t made lightly. For you first years, you couldn’t have started at a better time. You’ll get to experience all of this right along with the new students, and if you would like to sit in on some of their classes you will be allowed to. For the exchange students, you will be paired with people in the houses you are sorted into and you will learn through each other about not only the school, but also the magic and our world in general. Once again, welcome to Hogwarts.”

When he finished speaking the doors behind him swung open and he turned and briskly walked in. The room was huge with four long tables parallel across the hall with one shorter table at the front with what I could only assume to be administration seated. I looked up and sucked in a deep breath. A beautiful projection of the night sky that seemed to be in real time covered the whole of the cavernous ceiling. It was possibly the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. I didn’t want to look like a gaping tourist so I quickly corrected myself and looked back down and scanned the crowd. We were walking down the middle of the room with two of the long tables on either side of us. The students sitting at the tables seemed to be color coordinated, so I assumed these were the different houses we had learned about. When I looked at the faces of the students, I saw everything from eagerness and excitement to absolute and total disgust. We had been told the decision was controversial, but I was beginning to think it that was an understatement. I subtly took Misty’s hand next to me, not wanting to let my only real friend here out of my sight. She simply glanced up at me and smiled encouragingly.

We came to a stop a few feet from the front table where Professor Longbottom stood next to a stool with a ratty old pointed hat on it. The thing looked like it would fall apart as soon as he picked it up.

“First years will be sorted first.” Professor Longbottom boomed, “First up, Martha Appleton.”

The girl we had sat with paled as she walked up slowly to the stool. The professor picked up the hat and smiled encouragingly before Martha sat down on the rickety stool and had the hat placed on her head. Only a few seconds passed before fold opened on the hat and it yelled, “RAVENCLAW!”

All of the exchange students jumped, and a few let out short screams, at the fact that the hat just yelled, much to the entertainment of several seated students. I felt my face heat up but I ignored it. The students wearing blue and bronze all clapped and ushered the young girl over. One by one the first years were pretty much evenly distributed into the four houses, none of them taking a particularly long time. The hat was on Lily’s head maybe a minute before it put her in Hufflepuff. Finally it was the exchange student’s turn. Professor pulled another long scroll out of his long robe and announced the first student to be sorted.

“Misty Cortez.”

Misty went white next to me and clutched my hand tightly. She worriedly looked up at me, but I just smiled, nodded, and gave her a hand a small squeeze. Professor Longbottom yelled her name again and Misty blushed as she quickly made her way to the front of the crowd and up the short stairs to the hat. She sat down and the hat wasn’t on her head three seconds before it screamed out, “HUFFFLEPUFF!”

There was a resounding cheer erupted from the students wearing yellow and black on the far right side of the hall. Misty looked a little calmer, but still glanced over at me before getting up to walk over to the table of her new housemates. The sorting continued, the boy Waseem from the boat got into Ravenclaw fairly quickly. I tuned out after that and studied the teacher’s table. Behind the main table there was a large throne with gold gilding, and seated there was an extremely stern looking woman. She had grey hair pulled back into a tight bun and a long and conservative green dress. Sharp eyes studied the faces of the new students waiting to be sorted. We locked eyes for a moment before I heard, “Emily Miller.”

My head snapped back to professor Longbottom and the hat he was holding. I took a steading breath before confidently striding to the stool and smoothly sitting on it. My heart sped up, but I tried to put on a calm mask while the hat was put on my head.

“Well what do we have here?”

What the shit?

“Language dear please, let me have a look at you.”

It took me a moment to realize I was _hearing_ the _hat_ , and I’m sure my eyes were wide as saucers.

“Brave, loyal, and kind to your friends. You’d make a decent Gryffindor, but I’m sensing something else too. You are a wonderful and loyal _friend_ , but that’s a small pool. You choose your loyalty carefully, and ooh now I see the cleverness. If people think you’re a kind darling they’ll underestimate you, oh very clever. Obvious.”

Out loud it screamed, “SLYTHERIN!”

There was a pause before the applause this time. None of the other exchange students were put in Slytherin. I walked to where the tentative applause was coming from, the students wearing green and grey, and remembered something Lily had mentioned on the train. Slytherin was usually pureblood students. While it opened up more after the wizard war a few years ago, it was still a pretty exclusive group. My mind raced as I got closer to the table and looked for a place to sit. All the sudden I made eye contact with a tall blonde boy with grey eyes. He offered a small smile and scooted over to give me a spot. I made a beeline for him and took the offered seat. The people around me were weirdly quiet, but the boy next to me whispered over, “Hey, I’m Scorpius.”

I looked back over to him and smiled before answering, “Emily.”

“Nice to meet you Emily.”

We directed our attention back to the ceremony, but only a few people were left. The other girl from our boat, Briar, was put in Gryffindor too much more raucous applause than me. After the last person was sorted, the woman on the throne stood. The whole hall fell silent waiting for her.

“Welcome to another year at Hogwarts. Before dinner, I would like to introduce myself and go over some ground rules for those who are here for the first time. I am Headmistress McGonagall. As you all already know we have a new program going on at Hogwarts this year. I won’t get into much detail since either Professor Longbottom or your head of house has already explained it to you. Just remember that I expect all of you to respect and learn from one another. And lastly I would like to remind all student that the Forbidden Forrest is, as it’s name suggests, expressly forbidden to students.” She glanced over sharply to the Gryffindor table and I heard some snickers. “Now, I won’t stand between hungry children and their food, tuck in.”

With that all of the empty platters along the tables suddenly filled with food. I tried not to let my surprise show since everyone else in my house apparently knew this was coming. Behind me I heard a familiar, “Omigod no way.”

I spun around searching and saw Misty sitting at the table behind me a few seat spaces down.

“Misty.” I stage whispered, but she didn’t hear me.

I’d talk to her later. I looked back at the table in front of me and looked at what everyone else was getting. Nothing seemed to be off limits so I loaded my plate up with what was closest, but not too much. I wanted to make a good first impression. Scorpius did the same before turning to me and asking with a big smile, “So, where are you from?”

“New York City.” I answered, playing with my green beans, “How about you?”

“I’m from Wiltshire, but that’s no where near as cool as New York City! Wow!”

I blushed, “It’s really not that big a deal. What’s Wiltshire like?”

With that Scorpius went off talking about his home, then his family, and on and on. It passed like this all through dinner, but I periodically looked behind me to check on Misty. There were a couple of other exchange students there as well as Lily that she could sit with, and the Hufflepuff’s seemed to be a nice bunch. There were about as many exchange students in Gryffindor, but definitely the brunt of them went to Ravenclaw. I was trying to figure out how to get Misty’s attention to check on her without being obvious when I remembered my cell phone in my robe pocket. I got it out and-

No bars. Maybe Facebook?

“Hey Scorpius, what’s the Wi-Fi password?” I asked, trying to pick up a Wi-Fi network.

Scorpius looked at me confused, “What’s Wi-Fi.”

Well, shit.


	2. We Get a Buddy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Emily gets a buddy and learns of the potential problems of her situation

As Scorpius and I walked through the hallways of the school after dinner, my mind ran wild with potential problems I hadn’t calculated before coming here. There was no Wi-Fi, no cell phone coverage, and I hadn’t seen a single plug in for electronics. The last one was the worst. While I had brought a few notebooks and pens for note taking in class, I almost always did my work on my laptop. Also how was I supposed to get in contact with my family? Did they have a postal system I hadn’t heard about yet? Where was Misty? I needed to talk to her immediately. I could feel my breathing starting to speed up when Scorpius grabbed my arm and we slowed to the back of the heard of Slytherins.

“Are you okay? You shut down really fast and I’ll be honest, you’re kind of freaking me out.” He murmured once we were far enough back the others wouldn’t over hear our whispers.

I attempted to relax my face to appease his worry a bit. Misty always did say my worry face was a little…unsettling. I forced a smile and explained, “I’m just wondering about the lack of technology, I’m a little dependent.”

He nodded solemnly, “That’s right, I had forgotten. Muggles are really dependent on their electrical devices just to survive. That must be so limiting.”

His tone hit a nerve, like he was talking about a child still needing a night-light at night.

“Yes well, we can’t alter reality with a stick.” I snapped, turning to catch up with the crowd.

“Emily, wait.” He whispered speeding after me. However, he we had apparently reached our destination. We had slowly been going farther and farther down and now were standing in front of what seemed to be a normal wall with candles on either side; however I had learned to be skeptical of “normal” here. Sure enough a curvy, petite girl with dark hair stepped forward and said something I couldn’t hear. Suddenly the wall was gone, and instead there was a dimly lit hallway leading somewhere I couldn’t see over the students in front of me. The group slowly moved forward, with excited chatter from the first years. I could see Scorpius walking next to me, but I didn’t acknowledge him. I knew he didn’t deserve to get snapped at, but my pride wouldn’t let me acknowledge that yet. We came to a room that seemed rather…gloomy. It was sectioned by large archways around the room and clusters of chairs in each section. Opposite of us was a large and ornately carved fireplace that provided most of the light and warmth for the room, as well as green lanterns that hung from the ceiling. There were also tall, thin windows, but instead of moonlight coming through they seemed to glow a soft greenish blue color, almost as if we were…

Under water. The lake that we had sailed across earlier must be above us, and Lily had mentioned something about a giant squid on the way here.

My breathing stopped and panic began to creep back up my spine. I needed to focus on something else and not think about it. The curvy girl who had gotten us into the dormitory earlier stepped forward and turned to address the crowd.

“Normally I would dismiss returning students at this point, you all know the spiel I’m about to give, but we have some business first.” Strangely, she had an American accent, but her eyes were sharp as she scanned the crowd for anyone who had a problem with being detained. Satisfied when no one spoke out she continued, “We have a transfer student joining us this year. Ms. Miller, would you please step forward.”

Seriously? Would I have to say some fun facts about me?

All eyes turned to me as I tried to slip through the crowd without actually coming into contact with anyone. When I got to the front I took my spot next to the girl who seemed to be in charge and turned to the crowd. Scorpius had followed me and now stood in the front of the crowd. There was a soft murmur through the crowd now that we were all on their home turf and they could evaluate me better now. The girl held up her hand and the crowd silenced.

“Now then, as you all were informed earlier, transfers need a buddy. This person will stick with her all year unless a serious issue arises and you will be expected to not only teach her about us, but also learn from her about the muggle world. This will be a symbiotic relationship, and you will also get special opportunities throughout the school year. Understood?”

She took the silence as acceptance and asked, “Okay, any volunteers?”

More silence. I kept my face vaguely friendly, but I was starting to worry and my heart was hammering in my chest. The students glanced back and forth between each other, uncertain. Finally a tall boy with gorgeous blue eyes stepped forward.

Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad.

My hope was crushed quickly at his question, “Don’t we have muggle studies for this? Why do we need people like her here?” He looked at me as if I were something fowl he had stepped in.

The girl stepped forward to respond, but Scorpius interrupted her, “I’ll do it.”

All the eyes left me and snapped to him as more murmuring broke out. Scorpius just offered me a small smile. The girl looked between him and the other boy before saying, “Thanks for Malfoy. The rest of you returning can go unpack.”

The students lingered only another moment to look between me and Scorpius, but the draw of their beds overcame any curiosity they had about us. Besides, they’d probably hear it from the first years tomorrow morning anyway. I walked over to Scorpius and mouthed, “thanks.”

Once she was sure she had the attention of the first years and us she spoke again, “Okay, my name is Leia Gordon and I’m the Head Girl here this year. That means me and the Head Boy, Randal over in Ravenclaw, are in charge of the prefects who in turn are in charge of you. We’re here to make sure you follow the rules here, and if you have any problems that need to be addressed or are having problems with your schoolwork, we can help with that too. In case you didn’t hear, the password to get in to the common room was Cresswell. I would appreciate it if you didn’t blab that to all of your friends in other houses, this dormitory is supposed to be exclusive to Slytherins. Now the main things you’ve got to remember is that there is no fighting, with or without wands, no wandering the halls between 9 at night and 6 in the morning, no cheating, no slurs, and nothing that would be considered illegal elsewhere. Understood?”

I nodded and there were vague sounds of assent from the others as well. No slurs? Was discrimination a big enough problem here that they had to outright state this? I looked over to Scorpius who was seemed to be paying attention to everything but Leia. After she had gotten everyone’s acknowledgment, she finished up her speech, “All right then, boys your dorms will be up the left stairs and then a right, your names will listed next to the doors, girls it’s the opposite for you. Miller and Malfoy, you’ll come with me. Dismissed.”

The first years scurried off and up the staircases on either side of the room. Scorpius and I lingered with Leia. She walked towards the fireplace and seemed to relax, loosing some of the sharp edge in her eyes. We followed and took a seat on the couch opposite of her. Her pale skin looked much less sickly in the warmer light of the fire, and she looked a lot friendlier than my first impression. She sighed and said, “Okay, here’s the deal Miller, no one thought we were going to get a transfer. I’m sure you’ve heard some rumors about us all being pretentious pure bloods with superiority complexes, right?”

“A girl on the train mentioned something about Slytherin being full of purebloods, but she didn’t really explain what that was.”

Leia and Scorpius looked at each other before Scorpius turned to explain, “So there’s this hierarchal structure in our society, with the people who have the ‘purer’ or more wizard blood above everyone else. Next is the half bloods, who have a pretty even mix of muggle and wizard, and lastly are the muggle borns who are witches and wizards born to muggle parents. The pure bloods are notoriously really discriminatory towards anyone who isn’t them and think they’re better than everyone. However, this isn’t the rule and there are plenty of people who aren’t like this. Not to mention it’s been changing a lot in the past 20 years! Unfortunately, the reputation sticks.”

He looked down at this and Leia sent him a sympathetic look. I just looked between the two of them before and asked, “So I’m in the bigot house?

Leia took over again, “Well, Slytherin usually is exclusively pureblood, but as Scor said that’s changing. However, a lot of the students who come to us grew up with parents who are stuck in the past. We have been getting some half blood and even muggle born students though, like me. Both my parents are muggles, and now I’m a Slytherin prefect and Head girl. People are starting to think of us more as what we are, cunning and ambitious people and not necessarily evil bastards.”

Evil? I hoped that was an exaggeration.

Scorpius saw I still looked nervous and butted in again, “Honestly you being here will be great! It will give all of those who grew up in backwards homes an example of what muggles are really like, and not just the idiots we hear about in your news.”

I felt like I should have been offended by that, but I couldn’t bring myself to be. I just took a deep breath and nodded.

“Okay then, any tips?”

Leia and Scorpius both let out breaths, a little less worried about the situation now that I had a better understanding of the situation and had accepted it.

“Well,” Scorpius started, “It’d be best if you pretty much stuck with me most of the time. And if you’re not with me, make sure you’re with a group of people you know.”

I scoffed, “I’m a teenage girl, these aren’t exactly new safety tips for me.”

He blushed a bit at that and Leia took over, “Also, try to avoid confrontation. There will be people, not just from our house, who will try to start fights. Do not bite. They’re trying to prove a point that muggles aren’t worthy of being here or being involved with us at all. It sucks but you’ve got to stay calm, otherwise it just looks like you’re proving their point.”

I looked her over again, “You seem to have experience with this.”

“Like I said, I’m a muggle born in Slytherin. I wasn’t the first, but it was still extremely uncommon when I was sorted. I had to put up with a lot of shit and you will too.” Her warning unnerved me a little bit, but I wasn’t about to show that. “Alright, both of you to bed. Follow me Miller.”

“Good night Emily!” Scorpius said with a smile and stood, “Ill meet you down here before breakfast and we can walk together.”

I nodded and followed Leia up the stairs to the right. We passed the first and second year dorms and up another flight of stairs. There were doors on the walls to either side, a door behind us, and then another staircase leading higher. Leia stopped and gestured to the door on the left, which had a silver ‘4’ on it.

“This is the fourth year hall for girls. It depends on the year, but we usually average on 15-25 new students every year, and from there we divvy up how many rooms we need, with four beds per room. Everyone also gets there own wardrobe, chest, bedside table, and desk. The door behind you leads to the bathroom for this floor, so you’ll share it with the third year girls too.” She paused and shifted her feet, “Just remember, don’t rise to the taunts. Good luck, and breakfast starts at seven.”

With that she turned and began to climb the stairs on the other end of the hall.

“Wait! One more question!”

She paused and turned back to me, “What?”

“You’re muggle born, and you’re name is Leia. You’re not by chance named after-“

“My parents _really_ like Star Wars.”

She continued after that up the stairs and disappeared. Left alone, I finally let out a huge breath air as I leaned back against the wall. This was…a bit more than what I thought I had signed on for. Other than the whole potential discrimination issues, I wasn’t used to being surrounded by other people at all times. I had never been a particularly social person, and while I certainly had friends and could hold a conversation, I had always needed some time by myself. So far, this was the first time I’d been alone since the twenty minutes in the bathroom on the train. I slid down the wall leaned my cheek against the stone wall, trying to calm down.

“Calm down,” I whispered to myself, “What would Harper do?

I thought for a moment about my brother. He would probably walk in with a cheerful smile and something clever to say, introduce himself and make sure he endeared himself somehow to everyone in the room. I took another breath, and the stood, straightening myself up. I opened the door and walked into another hall, also lit by candlesticks. I get that it might take them a while to adapt to new technology, but even gas lamps had been around a while. There were two doors on either hall, and the one closest to me on the right had my name on a piece of parchment next to the door. I took in another deep breath before opening the door. There was tall window opposite the door and this one revealed we were above ground. There were two beautiful canopied beds on either side of room with desks against the wall closest to them. Three girls were clustered on the right bed closest to the door and snapped their heads to me when I walked in.

“Hi.” So much for a cool entrance.

They looked me up and down, and I tried to small smile even though at this point it was probably more of a grimace. I looked past them and I could see my stuff on the far left bed. The girls didn’t say anything, so I walked to my bed. Hopefully I could unpack quickly and go to bed, if only just to get rid of the awkward silence. I had only just opened my pack when I heard one of the girls stood.

“My name is Alexis Magnusson.” She was tall for our age, already probably five foot nine if not taller. She had dark skin, long dreadlocks and sharp features. She gestured to the girls still on the bed and introduced them as Melisa Jessup and Theodora Zabini. Melisa was a small girl with dark hair and black eyes, while Theodora was about my height had light brown skin and curly black hair. Melisa offered me a small smile and wave while Theodora just stared at me, evaluating.

I took a step forward and said, “Emily Miller, but you already knew that.”

The conversation stalled, no one really knowing what to say. I was just about to turn back to my chest when Theodora asked, “Why do you think you were put in Slytherin?”

I paused to think, and the girls once again seemed to scrutinize me. This was a test to see if I was worthy. What had the others said Slytherin was all about, cunning and ambitious? I could work with that.

“I really like to win.”

Alexis was the first to smile, letting her teeth show, “You’ll do fine.”

*****

Scorpius was true to his word the next morning and was waiting in front of the fireplace. He stood when he saw me coming down the stairs and offered me an easy smile. He took in my appearance and nodded, “You look nice, though the tie could use some work.”

I snorted. I had gotten up early to make sure I looked perfect today. My make up was flawless, my hair was in a high ponytail to keep it from getting messy through out the day, but then there was my tie. I had no idea how to tie a tie. The green and grey striped thing now hung around my neck like a dead snake.

Scorpius stepped forward, “Allow me.”

Within seconds it was properly tied and add a splash of color to the otherwise drab school uniform. I detested the skirt, but the black tights helped ease my discomfort.

“You’re gonna have to either do this every morning or teach me, Scorpius.”

“It’s really easy so I can teach you, and please call me Scor, only my family calls me Scorpius. So, make any friends last night?”

I shrugged as we started our walk to the great hall, “I wouldn’t say friends exactly, but I don’t think they hate me so there’s that at least.”

“See! Not as awful as it could have been! Always a good development.”

“Are you always so chipper in the mornings?”

“My mother says that a good morning is the secret to a good day.”

I smiled at that, but then it reminded me of an issue I hadn’t dealt with yet. My phone was in the inside pocket of my messenger bag, and I still couldn’t get in touch with my family. The girls last night were only beginning to accept me, so I hadn’t wanted to bother them. I was about to ask Scor about this, but he spoke first.

“I’m sorry about last night by the way, I shouldn’t have spoken down to you. My father says that you should never speak to anyone as though you’re better than them. I’m just not used to talking to muggles, and it’s a little weird for me.” He was looking down now, obviously ashamed of himself.

I put my hand on his shoulder and he looked back up, “Its really okay Scor, we’re both supposed to learn. Right? That’s what this whole thing is about. Not to mention I way overreacted. I was kind of freaking out and I took it out on you. I do that sometimes. I’m sorry too.”

He smiled at me and we entered a room with a massive staircase. All other thoughts left me when one of the flights of stairs moved.

No. Nuh uh. Too weird.

Scor followed my stare and laughed, “Don’t worry, they’re not as tricky as they look. We’ll deal with that after breakfast though.”

With that he pulled me to another large archway and we were in the entryway from last night. The Great Hall seemed warmer this morning and the artificial sky shone with sunlight even though it was grey outside. Students seemed more relaxed and mixed with other houses around them. I saw Misty’s lavender hair sitting at the same table she was at last night, talking animatedly with some other students. I headed her way and stood imposingly over her. Her friends noticed me first, and apparently my tie was enough to make them worriedly look me up and down. Misty turned around to see what had spooked her friends and jumped at the close presence behind her. When she looked up and saw it was me she just laughed and shoved me playfully. I fell back into the seat at the Slytherin table behind me and let loose a wide grin.

“Don’t be freak this early in the morning Emily.”

I just laughed it off and asked, “So how was your evening?”

Misty excitedly introduced her new friends. The girl opposite her was just as short as Misty with hard shoulder length dark hair and eyes was Khadryia. The boy to her left with curly dark blonde hair and an easy smile was Clay, on her right was a girl with short dark blonde hair and a round face named Rainy, and finally the boy to the left of Misty was tall with strawberry blonde hair and called Andrew. Rainy, Andrew, and Khadryia were all magical students, and Rainy was a fifth year. Khadryia was Misty’s partner and Andrew was Clay’s.

“Hey Misty,” I spoke up before she could get into any long stories, “Have you texted Mikalya yet?”

Her face lit up and she shook her head as she excitedly pulled out her phone. A few seconds passed as her face went from joy, to confusion, to horror.

“Emily,” She gasped, “my phone…”

Clay creased his eyebrows as he pulled out his phone, and moments later a similar look of horror crossed his face. He softly murmured something that sounded like vague assurances to Misty, but still looked worried. Misty just shook her head at him before looking back at me and squeaked, “How am I supposed to get in contact with anyone? My mom is probably freaking out! I promised to call her last night but I forgot!”

Her voice gradually rose in volume and attracted the attention of some of the people around us. A boy at the table on the other side of her, from the colors a Gryffindor, heard her and leaned over to tap Clay, who was the closest to him.

“There are some students in Ravenclaw handling it, not to worry. One of the muggle girls told us about it last night and we reached out.” He said smoothly before extending his hand, “I’m Eric. Welcome to Hogwarts.”

Clay and Misty both shook his hand before he turned away back to his table. I caught a glimpse of a pin on his robe with bright gold “P” on it. He must be one of the prefects Leia had told me about. The girl from yesterday, Briar was sitting opposite and waved at us before continuing her conversation with the tall boy.

“Well at least there are people looking into it.” I said, turning back to Misty.

“You guys could use my owl to write you’re parents until someone gets your phones working.” Rainy offered kindly.

“Like a messenger bird? I don’t think that’d work. We live in America and that’s a long flight for just an owl. Thanks for the offer though.”

All other conversation was halted when a plump smiling old man began working his way between the tables towards us. He wore a tweed jacket with brown pants and a vest. He waved at me and yelled jovially, “Yoo-hoo! Emily Miller!”

I shrunk down into my seat and glanced around me. No one seemed to think this odd though and the man stopped in front of me and extended his hand. I carefully shook it as he introduced himself.

“Welcome my dear! I’m Professor Slughorn and I’ll be you’re head of house, as well as your potions teacher. You have potions first yes?”

I nodded and asked, “You know my schedule?”

“Of course, you’re my only transfer student and I am absolutely over joyed to have you in my house. Just you wait, I’m sure we’re going to get along wonderfully. You were chosen for your intelligence and skill correct? Oh you’ll just love Slytherin, I’m sure of it! Oh yes!”

This was the man in charge of the evil assholes?

“It’s a pleasure to meet you sir. I’m sure I’m going to learn a lot.” I said sweetly with a smile. Getting him on my side seemed like a good idea.

“Oh you’re quite a polite young lady aren’t you? Well I wish I could stay and chat some more, but I must go and get ready for class. I have a little club of students here and we’re having our beginning of the year get together tonight in my office, I’d be happy if you would attend. You got into this program, so you must be quite talented. I’m certain you’ll fit right in!”

“I’d love to professor, thank you.”

“Wonderful! Wonderful! Well, I’ll see you in class. Good bye!”

And with that the smiling man was off again, pausing occasionally to quickly say hello to specific students. He seemed to be kind, grandfatherly man; but I couldn’t be fooled. This was the man in charge of the clever and ambitious people who loved success. There was more than met the eye to him. I’d had teachers with favorites before too, and this one seemed to blatantly choose his. Luckily I was already one. I could use this.

“What are you plotting?”

I turned back to Misty who was smirking at me. I grinned back, “Me? Plot? Never.”

“Yeah, and I would never dye my hair. Anyway, what’s your schedule? I want at least one class with you.”

We compared schedules and found that we only had two magical classes together, which were Care of Magical Creatures and History of Magic. We had all of our regular classes together though, which would be on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

“Sounds like a pretty decent course load if you ask me.”

I looked to my side to Scor. I had completely forgotten him. I hurried to introduce him to Misty; guilty I hadn’t done so earlier. Luckily they seemed to get past the late introduction quickly when he declared that he thought her hair was absolutely amazing. I turned back to my own table and grabbed some food, letting them chat. I needed to eat and mentally prepare myself; today was going to be a big day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There will be more explanation of the characters later, I just wanted to introduce them. Also the whole deal of how the Wizarding world was reviewed will be explained later.

**Author's Note:**

> I promise, James doesn't stay an asshole, we all have our dumb moments. So this is a story i'm writing for fun after a conversation with my friends one afternoon and I asked "Hey guys, what do you think hogwarts would be like with transfer muggle students?" It's a blatant self insert with my friends and I, the only thing changed is our last names. I hope you like it!


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